Since that announcement, we’ve learned a few more details. Huffman and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) will co-chair the caucus. Other members include Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who announced her membership on Twitter.

The whole piece reads like an angry right-wing Mad Libs. There’s no coherence to it, because there’s nothing to be mad about. Unlike the Congressional Prayer Caucus, I’d bet good money that every member of the Freethought Caucus would proudly defend the rights of Christians, too.

Think about what his rant means. Deace’s mad about some members of Congress using reason as basis for policy. He’s against church/state separation. He’s for discrimination of people whose religious views don’t match his own. He’s opposed to even discussing religion.

What is he so scared of? Who knows. There’s nothing to fear. Like so many conservatives, he’s blinded by hatred of the liberal bogeymen he wrongly believes are out to persecute him. No wonder he’s treating any movement toward normalcy and sanity as an attack on his worldview.

… nobody connected to this Caucus has said anything attacking religious belief or seeking to thwart particular notions of gods. [Deace’s] closing, where he suggests that the only source of ethics is his God, is just more of the rehashed prejudice against the moral potential of atheists and agnostics. It’s why the American Humanist Association’s “Good Without A God” tagline is still so relevant in terms of challenging such bigotry.

… The Congressional Freethought Caucus is not a partisan organization or some sinister anti-Christian cabal. It is a group of lawmakers committed to protecting the secular foundation of our country and combating discrimination against nontheistic Americans. Republican Members of Congress are free to join the caucus and we sincerely hope that they will.

Let me be clear to Mr. Deace and to others who claim this is a partisan ploy on behalf of the co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus: The Establishment Clause should not be up for partisan debate. The rights of minority faiths and nontheists should not be up for partisan debate. The importance of having public policy guided by reason and science should not be up for partisan debate. This is the guiding mission of the Congressional Freethought Caucus and Mr. Deace’s framing of it as a partisan attack on religion is disingenuous, deliberately divisive, and deeply telling.

This should come not come as a surprise to anyone, however, because when you’re part of the privileged religious majority, any movement towards equality feels like oppression. To Deace and the religious right, the formation of a Congressional Freethought Caucus is a sign that their outsized and unchallenged grip on political power may be coming to an end — and that clearly scares them.“